Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy been invited to attend the annual NATO summit in Ankara in July, the alliance’s Secretary General Mark Rutte confirmed on Friday.
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“I invited him already,” Rutte said at a press conference following a foreign ministers meeting in Sweden. “He will be there.”
Zelenskyy’s invitation was in a limited form at last year’s meet at the Hague, at the behest of the Trump administration.
It’s unclear how many of the private sessions within the summit Zelenskyy will attend this year.
Last year, the White House insisted on reducing the focus on the war in Ukraine, instead Washington demanded allies commit to spending 5% of GDP on defence as the central deliverable of the entire two days.
It was a sharp contrast to 2024’s summit in Washington, where under the Biden administration Zelenskyy was a guest of honour, and allies gave Kyiv guarantees that it was on an “indestructible path” to NATO membership. Such promises are no longer part of the conversation under Trump.
The meeting in Sweden this week was seen as a vital staging post ahead of the leaders’ summit in Ankara.
Joining his counterparts, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio restated the White House’s ongoing irritation that NATO allies didn’t join the US and Israel in the war in Iran.
Speaking alongside Rutte on the margins of the meeting, he indicated Trump would personally express his “disappointment” at leaders’ level when he sees them.
He said leaders will have to respond to Trump’s “disappointment” over their lack of early support in the Iran war, saying the matter “will have to be addressed.”
Trump has lashed out at NATO allies on numerous occasions since the start of the Iran war on 28 February when both the US and Israel launched surprised strikes against the Islamic republic.
Allies were not consulted or informed about military strategy or objectives behind the war and most European countries felt they were under no obligation to become party to the conflict.
However, Trump saw the matter differently and blasted European countries and Canada, accusing them of being “cowards.”
He said they didn’t want to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key international waterway which normally carries one fifth of the world’s gas and oil supplies.
“The solution would be to open the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote in a social media post, “a simple military maneuver…with so little risk,” but allies “don’t want to help.”
“COWARDS,” he said, “We will REMEMBER!”
Meanwhile, Rubio raised hopes on the potential of a deal to end the conflict in Iran.
“We await word on those conversations that are ongoing, there’s been some slight progress,” he said.
Iran’s foreign minister met Pakistan’s interior minister to discuss the latest proposals, with reports in Iranian press saying “gaps had been narrowed.”
Rubio clarified US demands for Iran to end its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons were a red line for the team from Washington.
“The fundamentals remain the same,” said Rubio. “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and we have to address the issue of highly enriched uranium.”
He also indicated how Iran has been attempting to take ownership over the Strait of Hormuz, after it seized control of the vital passageway in the early days of the war.
“Iran is trying to create a tolling system,” said Rubio.
“They’re trying to convince Oman to join them in a tolling system in an international waterway,” he said.
NATO allies including several other countries such as Japan, Australia and South Korea have committed to taking part in an operation to reopen the Strait as soon as hostilities come to an end.
